naturerecordists
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: database programs?

Subject: Re: database programs?
From: Walter Knapp <>
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2003 17:08:01 -0400
Jim Morgan wrote:
> John - As you know hard drives typically have a much shorter life than CD's
> and eventually fail and take their data with them. The scary part is that
> the failure time is unpredictable. Sometimes the data on the failed drive
> can be recovered but usually at a very high cost.

The worst about HD failure is it's instant, often with no warning.

> If you did your back-up on two drives so each drive has duplicate info you
> would probably be very safe. The likelihood of both drives failing before a
> new redundant drive is put in place is unlikely. BUT you could lose the
> drives and your entire system to a voltage surge. And then, with out other
> back-ups you would be SOL.

I'm into another round of repairing lightning damage here. Got hit the 
day before leaving for Canada. This got our Sat TV, two computers and a 
printer. And a dozen surge suppressers here and there in the system. 
I've yet to loose a HD due to lightning, it's usually just I/O damage. 
Inconvenient, but insurance always covers.

> As you say, the number of cd's can become large. I  presently have 49 BU
> CD's for sound and 10 for photographs.
> 
> I doubt that I will ever accumulate more than 200 BU CD's of sound
> recordings which for me would be very manageable.

I too find the number of optical disks quite manageable. Particularly in 
photos I occasionally go back through and cull which cuts the space used.

> Eventually I may go to DVD or what ever David thinks is best.

I'm holding off on DVD, want to see it better stabilized as to format 
and a lot more common in this kind of use. See more track record.

Walt






________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the naturerecordists mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU